Lives of Four Martyrs of Tonkin

The four Martyrs of whom we have written the history were all Dominican religious. Three of them Spaniards and one a Tonkinese. All four were martyred at Hanoi', the capital of Tonkin, outside the territory of their mission, the first two on the 22nd of January, 1745, and the other two the 7th of November, 1773. The Dominican mission of Tonkin divided to-day into three Vicariates Apostolic, formed at that time but one only, under the name of the Vicariate Apostolic of Eastern Tonkin. Its territory extended between the Red River, the Clear River and China. This territory, however, was not exclusively reserved to the Dominicans, as it is at the present day-Jesuits, Augustinians, and Carmelites had missions in various parts. Tonkin in the XVIII century had kings who did not govern. The family Trinh had seized the power, and one of its members really exercised it under the name of Chtla or Lord. This word "Chua" has no exact equivalent in our tongue. Real kings to whom the name alone was wanting, the Annamite "Chua," had a family likeness to the mayors of the palace of the Merovingian epochs in France. Japan at that time was similarly governed. Such was the political situation in the middle of the XVIII century. The "Chua" or kings of Tonkin, as we shall often call them, since they possessed its real authority-these kings, contemporaries of our martyrs, whom they condemned to death, were in the first place corrupt men, leading the licentious life of the Oriental princes. They were surrounded by eunuchs and perverse mandarins, who exercised upon them an unfortunate influence. They had the mental views and prejudices of their race, heartily detesting all that came from outside; the Christian doctrine they hated instinctively, because it condemned their licentious inclinations; moreover, during this period which extends from the year 1737, in which the first of our four martyrs was arrested, to 1773, the year when the last two were put to death, the "Chua" or kings of Tonkin had to repress several insurrections which came near depriving them of their usurped power. Frightful calamities desolated the country: disastrous inundations, prolonged droughts which caused the loss of several crops, and brought in frightful famines, pestilence, cholera, small-pox, etc. The mandarins excited by the calumnies of the bonzes, represented the Christians and missionaries to the King as the cause of all these evils. All this was more than sufficient to bring these weak and naturally cruel princes to commit the greatest injustices and even to shed the blood of the ministers of God.